1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a table service comprising: a) a support and holding body member having an upper portion provided with holding means and a lower portion for support, the resting of said body member on a horizontal surface determining a first rest position of said body member; and b) at least one dispensing container which has a bottom wall, which may be placed on said lower support portion and which is provided with a head member comprising dispensing means, the placing of a container on said lower support portion determining a second inactive position of the container.
2. Prior Art
The table services for dispensing liquid or solid condiments in table service, traditionally known as cruets, are conventionally formed by containers for liquid condiments, such as oil and vinegar, provided with a spout (oil bottles), nozzle or pouring beak, with a filling stopper and, optionally, handling means, such as handles. Said containers are placed on a drip collector plate, in the case of individual containers, or on a tray, in a basket or the like, provided with housings for the containers and a handle, in the case of grouped containers or ensembles. Complementarily to said liquid containers, there are the containers for sprinkling a solid condiment, such as salt or pepper, which are provided with dispensing or sprinkling holes disposed, in general, in the filling stoppers.
Currently, table services of the type formed by sets of oil cruet, vinegar cruet, salt pot and pepper pot are used. The components thereof, as explained above, are located in housings provided in brackets or support body members provided with a handle for manual holding in the fist or hanging from one or two fingers, which group together not only the oil and vinegar cruets or the salt pot or pepper pot or all of them. Spanish Patent 87000358 discloses a set of this type.
In all cases, the pouring beaks or nozzles of the oil and vinegar bottles and the sprinkler holes of the salt and pepper pots are uncovered, whereby said parts are exposed to environmental pollution, insects, splashing in various ways (coughing, sneezing, etc.) and, others, whereby they suffer from insufficient hygiene.
To overcome this drawback, various solutions have been proposed such as providing a cap or stopper which encloses the container head end at the top, a rocking or sliding lid covering said pouring beaks or nozzles and sprinkling holes, which is operated with the same hand as the one manipulating the container, preventing the ingress of foreign matter and the vertical placement of the plane of the outlet orifices of the beaks and holes of the containers, which makes such ingress of foreign matter difficult. Within these types of containers for oil cruets or vinegar cruets for table or kitchen use, there may be cited those disclosed in Spanish utility models 56,986, 205,800 and 206,305, in which the first and the third disclose a rocking lid and the second one a closure cap.
To summarize, it should be pointed out that, in general, among such containers for table service, those having a free or open head end are convenient to use, but are not hygienic and those having closed head ends are hygienic but not convenient to use.
Furthermore, it is desirable that the containers be placed in the support and holding body member with a high degree of security, such that an alteration of the position of the support and holding body member during carrying or use thereof does not involve a risk of the containers becoming separated.
Thus, with a view to solving said problems, table services are desirable in which, in turn, the containers have the hygiene of the covered head ends and the convenience of the free or uncovered head ends, as well as a security which may be compared with that attained by some conventional table services.
To this end, it is an object of the invention to provide a solution according to which the free head end containers, when out of use, have the active portion of the head ends covered by portions of the support and holding body member, thereby isolating said active parts (pouring beaks and nozzles and sprinkler holes) from contact with the environment, while at the same time allowing the containers to be removed from and reinserted in the support and holding body member easily and conveniently.